Iveta Silova

Iveta Silova is an Associate Professor and Director of Comparative and International Education program at the College of Education, Lehigh University. Her research and publications cover a range of issues critical to understanding post-socialist education transformation processes in the context of globalization, including gender equity trends in Eastern/Central Europe and Central Asia, minority/multicultural education policies in the former Soviet Union, as well as the scope, nature, and implications of private tutoring in a cross-national perspective. She is the co-editor (with Noah W. Sobe) of a quarterly peer-reviewed journal "European Education: Issues and Studies."

Iveta Silova and Viktoriia Brezheniuk*
Since November 2013, the world has been following the historic protests on EuroMaidan, where mass rallies have been held against President Viktor Yanukovych's refusal to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union (EU). Thousands of Ukrainians – both young and old – took to the streets of Kiev to demand the resignation of Yanukovych and his Government. Carrying both Ukrainian and EU flags, protestors occupied Kiev’s central Independence Square as well as other administrative buildings. ...

With the advent of the market forces in the post-socialist education space, the logic of service provision has become commonplace in schools. For many teachers, “education entrepreneurship” has become a part of the individual and collective professional identity formation. In Lithuania, for example, the 2003 Law on Education codified the concept of a “freelance teacher,” whereby teachers can become licensed to engage in private educational activities on an individual basis. According to the Law, freelance teachers have the right to ...

The collapse of the socialist bloc in 1989 was accompanied by a severe economic decline. This resulted in the decrease of education spending in most countries of Southeast/Central Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Twenty years later, the global financial crisis has dealt another major blow to the educational systems of the former socialist bloc. As public expenditure on education declined, the share of costs borne by individuals and families has exponentially grown in most countries of the region.
The new private ...

Privatisation in public education has become the focus of much-needed analysis, highlighting the ethical dangers associated with education reforms promoting competition, choice, performance management, private-public partnerships, and commercialization in education* However, one of the most widespread (yet mostly invisible) forms of privatisation in public education – private tutoring – has generally remained outside of policy review.
Billion-dollar industry According to 2012 estimates, private tutoring constituted a US$11 billion industry in the United States alone. It has become a worldwide phenomenon that ...

While academics and policymakers are debating whether education could be preserved as a public good in the aftermath of the global economic crisis, the business world has a different take on the issue.
For private equity investors in the United States, education is first and foremost a lucrative investment opportunity. It is merely a commodity that can be opportunely bought and sold in the growing educational marketplace. On 26 July, the Capital Roundtable (America's leading conference company for the middle-market private ...

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Education International

Education International is the voice of teachers and other education employees across the globe. A global federation of about 400 unions in more than 170 countries and territories, it represents 30 million teachers and other employees in education from early childhood to university.